Case Number 20224

PARKS AND RECREATION: SEASON TWO

The Charge

"I think it's a real shame when people focus on the tawdry details of a
scandal. Personally, all I care about is Councilman Dexhart's policies; not
whether he was high on nitrous and cocaine during the cave sex...which, by the
way, I heard he was." -- Leslie Knope

Opening Statement

Season Two of The Office showrunner Greg Daniel's other
(better?) show, Parks and Recreation, showed a vast improvement over the
short first season, becoming one of the best half-hour comedies on TV. In case
you missed the excellent second season -- and, judging by the show's low
ratings, there's a good chance you did -- the DVD release is your chance to
catch up and redeem yourself.

Facts of the Case

Here are 24 the episodes that make up Parks and Recreation: Season
Two:

* "Pawnee Zoo" Leslie (Amy Poehler, Baby Mama)
unwittingly becomes an activist when she accidentally oversees a same-sex
marriage between two penguins during a zoo promotion; Ann (Rashida Jones, I
Love You, Man) and Mark (Paul Schneider, All the Real Girls) agree to
go out on a first date.

* "Stakeout" When someone plants marijuana in Leslie's
community garden, she enlists Tom (Aziz Ansari, Get Him to the Greek) to
stake out the pit and find the culprit. Comedian Louis C.K. (The Invention of
Lying) guest stars.

* "Beauty Pageant" Leslie is asked to judge the Miss Pawnee
beauty pageant, but runs up against the other judges who are looking for
different things in a winner; April (Aubrey Plaza, Scott Pilgrim vs. The
World) enters the pageant against her better judgment; Ann finally learns
where her ex-boyfriend Andy (Chris Pratt, Wanted) has been living.

* "Practice Date" In preparation for her date with Officer
Dave, Leslie talks Ann into going on a "practice date" with her; Tom,
Mark, April and Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman, The Men Who Stare at Goats)
have a contest to see who can dig up the most dirt on each other.

* "Kaboom!" Leslie and her crew help a group called KaBOOM!
finish a playground in just one day, making Leslie even more aware of her own
lack of progress in getting the pit filled in.

* "Greg Pikitis" Leslie once again goes up against her
arch-nemesis while trying to prevent Halloween vandalism; Ann struggles to make
her party fun and gets help from Tom.

* "Ron and Tammy" Leslie learns that the library department
headed by Ron's ex-wife, Tammy (Will and Grace's Megan Mullaley,
real-life wife of Nick Offerman), plans to take over her lot; Andy gets a new
job.

* "The Camel" The parks and recreation department
brainstorms a new mural when the old one is vandalized.

* "Hunting Trip" Leslie sets out to break up the Pawnee
government boys' club by accompanying Ron and Jerry on their annual hunting
trip, but things quickly go badly when Ron is shot; Andy and April bond in the
absence of their co-workers.

* "Tom's Divorce" Leslie learns that Tom and his wife Wendy
are getting a divorce, so she decides to take him out on the town and make him
forget his troubles.

* "Christmas Scandal" Leslie is wrapped up in a sex scandal
with a Pawnee councilman; Ron learns the hard way just how busy Leslie is at her
job.

* "The Set Up" Ann fixes Leslie up on a date with co-worker
(Will Arnett, Arrested Development, Amy Poehler's real-life husband); an
old friend of Ann's resurfaces and makes Mark a little jealous.

* "Leslie's House" Leslie enlists the help of the entire
city of Pawnee while trying to throw a dinner party that will impress her new
boyfriend Justin (Justin Theroux, Muholland Dr.).

* "Sweetums" Leslie tries to ban the sale of a new energy
bar in Pawnee when she learns what they're actually made from, only to learn
that no one feels the same way; Tom enlists Mark to help him move.

* "Galentine's Day" Leslie and Justin try to reunite
Leslie's mom with an old boyfriend (John Larroquette, Southland Tales);
Andy's band gets a gig at the senior center.

* "Woman of the Year" Ron Swanson wins the Woman of the Year
award for one of Leslie's ideas; Tom tries to invest in a new nightclub; April
and Andy go apartment hunting.

* "The Possum" Leslie forms a task force to find the possum
that bit the mayor's dog on the golf course; Mark and Ron Swanson butt heads at
work.

* "Summer Catalog" To help prepare the new Summer Events
catalog for the Parks Department, Leslie takes Ron out for a picnic with all of
the previous directors of the department, who have difficulty getting along with
one another; Ann and Mark help Tom realize his dream of appearing on the catalog
cover.

* "94 Meeting" April makes a mistake on Ron's calender and
books nearly 100 meetings in the same day; Leslie learns that an ex-Miss Pawnee
is going to make drastic changes to a historical site.

* "The Master Plan" Two state auditors (Rob Lowe, Bad
Influence, and Adam Scott, Torque) arrive in Pawnee and throw a
wrench into Leslie's plans for a park; April celebrates her 21st birthday and
hopes it changes things with Andy.

The Evidence

I'm not one to brag, but I have to say it: I told you so.

When reviewing the first, very truncated (only six episodes) season of
Parks and Recreation on DVD, I made note that by the end of the season,
the show had found its voice and had become a show that would be worth watching.
Well, here's Season Two to prove my point for me. Parks and Recreation
has become one of the best comedies currently on the air. The show, which once
could easily have been accused of being too similar to The Office has
evolved into its own thing; yes, the workplace setting and documentary approach
is the same, but that's it.

The biggest contributor to Parks and Recreation's second season
success is the excellence of the ensemble, which has fast become one of the
strongest and most likable on television (NBC just about has the market cornered
on this, what with The Office, 30 Rock and Community all on
the network). Amy Poehler, who leads the ensemble, has really come into her own
as Leslie Knope and distinguished herself from Steve Carrell's Michael Scott.
She's no longer the clueless buffoon, but rather the endless energetic and
optimistic center in a community rife with apathy. That's what gives the series
its central drama; Leslie is slowly but surely dragging the Pawnee Parks
Department over to her side and actually inspiring things like hope and change.
It comes in small doses -- often, almost too small to measure -- but it's there,
and it's a testament to the strength of Parks and Recreation that it's
able to score laughs from things like positivity and enthusiasm. These aren't
dark or desperate laughs, and we are not meant to laugh at the characters (most
of the time; there are more than a few laughs to be had at Andy's expense,
particularly early on when he's not quite the loveable goof he transforms into).
We like everyone in the Parks Department. We want Leslie to succeed in her
efforts to improve her community. We want things to be better for everyone. It
may not seem like much, but what's the last sitcom you can remember that made
you feel that way?

Rashida Jones is still stranded with the role of straight woman, and while
it's a part she plays well, her character remains more dispensable than others.
She's not the audience surrogate the way Jim or Pam is on The Office (I
promise I'll stop making comparisons soon) and is rarely at the center of the
action. Her main reason for being seems to be that she's the first ripple in
Leslie's wave of change; that's an important function (for reasons mentioned
earlier), but it doesn't always play into the comedy side of things all that
strongly. Still, I'm glad to see that Parks and Rec isn't at all
interested in turning Ann and Mark into this show's Pam and Jim (there; now I
think I'm done). Some lip service is paid towards that idea, but the romantic
relationship is wisely kept mostly to the sidelines. In fact, Mark doesn't even
make it to the end of the season, and while Paul Schneider is an amiable
performer I'd be lying if I said that bothered me much. Instead, we get Rob Lowe
and Adam Scott for the final two episodes of the season, and the pair brings an
entirely different energy that I'm excited about going into Season Three (I say
this partially because I'm a big, big Adam Scott fan; anyone who isn't ought to
track down both seasons of Party Down). If there are two actors and
characters who could conceivably improve an already first-rate ensemble, my
money's on these two.

Of course, the greatness of the cast shouldn't take away from the writing,
which has really sharpened and improved in the show's second season (it doesn't
hurt that comedian Dana Gould, possibly one of the funniest people alive, came
aboard as a producer for Season Two). The plots are more ambitious than in the
first season, but also better constructed and executed. Episodes like
"Hunting Party" and "Ron and Tammy" are new classics of the
series, offering great character moments that also reveal something about who
these people are (any episode that centers on Ron Swanson is guaranteed to be
great, because Ron Swanson is the best. THE BEST.) In my recent reviews of both
The Office: Season Six and 30 Rock: Season Four, I made mention of
how both series had their weakest seasons to date. While I still believe that to
be true, I think it was exacerbated by just how good the two new kids in NBC's
Thursday night lineup -- Community and Parks and Recreation --
have been. They're showing those more established, more acclaimed shows just how
it's done.

All 24 episodes of Parks and Recreation: Season Two here, spread out
over four discs and presented in their original broadcast aspect ratio of
1.78:1. Like its network counterpart, The Office, the shows look terrific
even on standard definition DVD (as of now, there is no Blu-ray release), with
warm colors, accurate skin tones and no visible flaws. The 5.1 audio track
concentrates all of the dialogue in the front and center channels, reserving the
rear speakers for the occasional ambient sound. Obviously, it's nothing you're
going to show off your home theater with, but it gets the job done with nothing
to complain about.

The main attraction in the supplemental section is the whopping two and a
half hours of deleted scenes, available to watch either by episode or with a
"Play All" function. The cuts all makes sense -- it's only a 22-minute
show, and there's only so much that will fit in a given episode -- but if you're
a fan of Parks and Recreation, the deleted scenes will extend your
enjoyment of the show. The deleted stuff plays well on its own, and is often
every bit as funny as the scenes that made the cut. Also included are
commentaries over six of the episodes: "Sister City," "Ron and
Tammy," "Hunting Party," "Woman of the Year," "The
Master Plan" and "Freddy Spaghetti" (the latter two have
commentaries over the longer "Producer's Cuts" included on the set).
The commentaries include different permutations of cast and creative crew --
everyone from Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari and Aubrey Plaza to co-creator Greg
Daniels to writer Harris Wittels to guest stars Fred Armisen and Megan Mullaley.
Because of the people involved, the commentaries are mostly a lot of fun, though
the more participants there are the harder their conversations are to make
out.

Rounding out the special features are a few gag featurettes, including
"Pratt on Parks," a series of webisodes made by star Chris
Pratt; "Mouse Rat Rocks the Wrap Party," which features a set from
Pratt-as-Andy and his band, and "?estlove on Parks," featuring
the drummer for the band The Roots sitting down to talk about the show and doing
a fake screen test. Additionally, there is an amusing blooper reel, a short
piece on the show's theme song featuring composer Gabby Moreno, a couple of
commercials that originally aired on NBC during the Winter Olympics and a
"sneak peek" at the upcoming Season Three.

Closing Statement

After a half season away (presumably so that NBC could launch the xenophobic
abomination that is Outsourced), Parks and Recreation will be back
this January. Paul Schneider isn't returning, but Adam Scott is, and I'd call
that trading up. Long live the Pawnee Parks Department.